This section is intended to introduce the reader to various aspects of the art that may be related to various aspects of the present invention. The following discussion is intended to provide information to facilitate a better understanding of the present invention. Accordingly, it should be understood that statements in the following discussion are to be read in this light, and not as admissions of prior art.
The present invention is based on the case where there may be mobile stations in any given cell where each mobile station (MS) has one or more ongoing uplink packet services which are delay sensitive in nature. The specific scenario addressed is where one or more of these mobile stations has become inactive (i.e. a mobile station is in packet transfer mode but there is currently no uplink payload to send) and the BSS (base station subsystem or simply base station) has responded to this inactivity by significantly reducing the frequency of the dedicated USF(s) assigned to each of these mobile stations. These inactive mobile stations may become active at any moment due to additional uplink payload becoming available within the mobile station (MS). The challenge with the BSS managing such inactive mobile stations is that it must still provide them with a significant number of dedicated USF (Uplink State Flag) based transmission opportunities so as to ensure the delay experienced in resuming the transmission of their uplink packet services is minimized (i.e. the delay requirement for sending uplink payload associated with such services must not be violated when an inactive mobile station becomes active again).